


Collateral Damage

by sageness



Category: DCU, Green Arrow
Genre: Canon - Comics, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-07-18
Updated: 2005-07-18
Packaged: 2017-10-03 06:39:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sageness/pseuds/sageness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Green Arrow.</p><p>Ollie's dead and Connor isn't. Eddie Fyers takes stock of the collateral damage.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Collateral Damage

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to maelithil and __fallen for the generous betas!

The kid really is a piece of work. Sometimes you hear stories about true innocents. Not just people too dumb to get out of the line of fire, but actual, true innocents. People so sheltered from the evil crap in the world that they genuinely believe not everyone's out to kill each other. Not that everyone is, necessarily, but in his business, most people are.

Eddie watches the kid. Everything he does is graceful, which makes a lot of sense, given that he's a kung fu master or some shit at barely nineteen. But it also brings back memories. Mostly to 'Nam, since the kid's got twice-mixed blood. He's pretty sure his mother must've been a babe back in the day, all exotic-looking like the Vietnamese war-babies, except Korean instead. He's pretty sure he knows what Ollie saw in her. All caught up in being Errol fucking Flynn and his thousand lays. Crazy that the son of a bitch doesn't even see it. Connor looks at Ollie like he could fucking shoot down the moon with one of those trick arrows. Ollie doesn't even wonder how come the kid coincidentally has the exact same color hair, the same ears, the same set to his jaw. Ollie's being willfully ignorant, but since when is that shit news? Ollie makes being clueless into an art.

Eddie pays attention. You got to, in his line of work. You let a nice ass distract you, you're dead. Ollie knows this, Ollie's just one lucky motherfucker. The kid, though. The kid knows. The kid's eyes are everywhere, all the time. He's innocent, not ignorant, and really fucking not blind.

He doesn't know whether Connor twigged to the vibe between him and Ollie in the motel. He doesn't know if it matters, after all, what's a blowjob between friends? And him and Ollie are that. They may not like each other much, but they can always rely on each other, and that's how it should be in Eddie's book. That's what it's all about.

But the kid. With his hazel-green eyes, and why the fuck does Eddie know that? His bow arm, his perfect athlete's body, his ass that's a damn sight better-looking than anything on Baywatch, male or female. Ollie's is, too, for that matter. Must be an archer thing. Or a Queen family thing, who knows?

He shouldn’t be thinking about his best friend's son's ass. That's more trouble than it's worth and unlike Ollie, Eddie's smarter than that.

Most of the time.

* * *

 

It's harder when Ollie dies, and sure, Eddie sounds like a complete prick when he tells Connor to get over it, but Ollie always knew eventually one of his crusades would turn out to be a one-way trip. None of them had planned on him being blown to smithereens above Metropolis, but what could you do. And sure, Eddie's an asshole. But Connor knew that already. He did.

* * *

 

A couple of days after that, Eddie's got Connor in his arms and the kid's bawling. Eddie was just going to say goodbye, let him know he was headed out for a job in Eastern Europe. Connor was doing the same thing. Headed out west to his Grandpa's ranch in Idaho. The kid smells good, though, feels good in his arms. Better and worse than his dad had. Young and full of promise, and still so fucking naïve it makes Eddie want to puke. Even if that's the part of Connor Eddie's tried the hardest to keep safe.

"Your dad would be proud of you," he says in a gruff voice after he pushes Connor away.

Connor wipes his eyes and glares. "I'm not an idiot, Eddie. He didn't want to have anything to do with me."

"He freaked. I told you that. But deep down, you got him where he lived, okay? He was proud as hell of you. Trust me."

Eddie isn't lying. He knows Ollie, knows the look in his eyes when he'd watched the boy unawares. It was envy in Ollie's eyes. Connor's got more potential than you could shake a stick at, more than Ollie ever had. And if he's damned lucky, one day he'll have the street smarts to go with it.

* * *

 

Jansen's a freak, but that sure explains why Connor was so clueless about the world. Guys who live in monasteries don't know jack shit about anything, but Jansen sure can fight and he loves Connor like a son. Connor's got father figures out the wazoo. Jansen, his grandpa, Eddie… Meanwhile, Connor's mom's a glorified doormat married to a piece of shit international arms dealer who tries to blow them all up on a more or less monthly basis. No wonder Connor's more comfortable with men. Not to mention the other women he knows are either useless twits or entirely out of his league. Good that he's not getting in over his head, but Eddie can't help wondering what's up with Connor and the new Green Lantern. He's usually not around when they're together, but he caught a newsclip and he's seen the way they said goodbye once. He can't tell whether they're fucking and failing to be discreet, or just crazy about each other and too dumb to realize they could be fucking. He isn't sure if it matters.

Still, Eddie wonders what Ollie would think. He knows he and the old Green Lantern were like that before they each went bad. Maybe it's something to do with the name or the costume or even the fucking ring. Like the ring draws Arrow boys to the person wearing it or some shit. Weirder things have happened. And it's good to see the boy happy…really good. Except he still seems way out of his depth. He's still too damned trusting, especially when it comes to women. Any bitch could lie to him and Connor would never know. Fucking monastery.

Eddie looks out for him probably more than he should. He tries to keep his interest on the down low, so he doesn't draw fire to him. Enough people in the world want Eddie Fyers dead that they would use Connor as bait if they knew how much he meant to him. Ollie's kid. God he misses Ollie, the stupid son of a bitch, and his kid is just like him, but better. At the end of the day, the kid's a fucking decent human being. No killing, no torture, no womanizing, no stealing, and too easy on the eyes to be real. If Ollie were still around, Eddie would punch his lights out. All the kid wanted was acknowledgment and Ollie couldn't fucking handle it. He had to run off like a fucking crybaby and get himself killed before he could make it up to him.

To them. Because Eddie misses Ollie, sure. He misses his body, his mouth, his dick, the fucking strength in the guy's arms, and the way he fucking loved to get laid, anytime, anywhere, just because it was fun. Which isn't to say he's not still pissed as fuck at him.

For hurting the kid's feelings.

More than that, for leaving at all. Because if Ollie was still around, even if he and the kid never found a scrap of common ground, Eddie and Ollie always did. They were good together and Eddie misses it. There's a hole in his gut now where Ollie used to be, and every single day that passes, Eddie comes a little closer to trying to find out if Connor might fit that hole well enough to make some of the hurt stop. Because he's an asshole. It's how he's managed to stay alive this long in his line of work.

Usually, he shuts the thoughts off pretty quick. He knows damned well that father and son aren't interchangeable, and Ollie himself would skewer him in a heartbeat…if only he were around to do it.

That's not the reason Eddie won't, though.

He won't because he knows Connor would let him, because he's too fucking inexperienced to know better. And Eddie isn't that much of a bastard.

Most of the time.


End file.
